Greeting to all Hive Gardeners and Hivers!
I hope all of you are doing fine! I am sharing with you my Garden Journal for August. It has been raining for so many days now and that is good not only for the farmers but also for the drying rivers in Europe and many parts of the world. The weather in our place is changing and it´s becoming cooler in the night. We no longer have 30+°C and to think it is still Summer our skies are always cloudy... due to global warming, perhaps?
I do not have much to boast about in the Community since I only have a container garden on my balcony. This year, to be honest, my plants did not thrive well compared to last year. The plants suffered and have had parasites not only aphids but molds and other issues. My homemade anti-parasite sprays did not help much. Those cold temperatures last April damaged my newbie plants and they almost died-off. This year, the tomatoes took too long to develop. I can also forget my eggplant bush now even if I have removed the affected leaves...it is becoming too late to start blooming.
However, the good news is, the beefsteak tomato which had been robust at that time, did not suffer that much and to my astonishment, it is thriving well that the harvests are huge in size. The green ones below will be getting ripe in about 4-5 days, so I am anxious as I am planning to make them into our favorite antipasti called Oven Roasted Garlic Tomatoes.
As far as I remember, the only parasites in my containers last year had been the white grubs. And although I was able to eradicate them by tilling the soil to look for them, the elongated pepper still grew to be so resilient. I was so shocked to find 2 dozen of them crawling in the soil, so I gathered them and moved them to the nearby farmland.
I tried planting lemon seeds 2 months ago and they have grown into these now. I will transfer them soon in a bigger pot.
The bell peppers are still small , they also suffered from the April cold weather. But I think they will grow big til Sept.
The basil plant suffered too but they regain strength later and even now has lovely flower blooms below.
The blackberries are really really slow in its ripening process and they are still red. I picked about 3 berries that became black, they were soft, probably they needed more time because although soft, they were sour, lol.
These 3rd batch of lettuce are also slow in growing, but just alright with healthy leaves...I will soon harvest them to make into a green salad.
You can see the no thorn blackberries are still red, I am still wondering how many more weeks to go before they get black. The Raspberry bush behind it has been trimmed-off with its branches.
Another pepper variety which I think will become yellow when ripe... and the elongated sweet ones below are now getting red.
I am glad that even in such a limited space, I am still able to do my gardening.. It is so much fun to be able to sow the seeds and watch them grow into a huge plant and harvest the fruit of your labor!
Happy Gardening!
